POWAY ---- This month, Elizabeth Blair Johnson and most of her fellow Poway High School seniors are preoccupied with writing essays for their college applications. But another of Johnson’s literary creations will take center stage this weekend.

“A Day in My So-Called Life” is a full-length stage comedy that Johnson, 17, wrote and will direct in its world premiere Friday at PowPAC, Poway’s Community Theatre. It’s the story of a high school student named Paige (and her brain, a separate character) dealing with the everyday ups and downs of teen romance, parental conflict and school problems.

The seeds of this play were born last year at a summer playwriting workshop at Stanford University. Although Johnson has performed in youth and school theater since she moved to Poway in 2008, she was stumped for an idea at the workshop.

“It came out of a day of writer’s block,” Johnson said. “The teacher told us to write what comes into our mind for 10 minutes, but there was nothing in my head. I was angry at my brain for not giving me any material to work with, so I wrote that down and it became the first line of my 10-minute play.”

Johnson further developed the script this past summer with PowPAC directors Jay Mower and Sherrie Colbourn, and it’s now a family-friendly, 1-hour, 40-minute play starring Kate Hansen as Paige and Laurissa Rudgers as her sassy Brain, among others.

“Because Paige is the only person who can hear her, Brain has an attitude and says whatever she wants. Paige is the politically correct filter for everything Brain is thinking,” Johnson said. “The main conflict is when Paige goes on a date with a boy she likes but her parents don’t want her to go, and she gets a detention at school. It’s all about the awkwardness of high school.”

Lynn Wolsey, publicity manager for PowPAC, said the theater’s board is thrilled to present Johnson’s play. “Lizzie is an amazingly talented young woman and PowPAC is quite proud of the upcoming production.”

Johnson said seeing her words come to life onstage has been “the most magical thing I’ve ever encountered in my life.”

After the play’s run closes on Sunday, Johnson said she’ll focus on a long list of college applications. Her goal is to major in directing or screenwriting.

“I’m not sure exactly what I want to do but I want to stay in the theater industry,” she said. “I just adore acting and would love to be onstage, but I think it would be more stable and practical to have a career on the backside of the industry.”